Google Introduces Buzz-kill Link to Gmail
Want to disable Buzz completely, delete all you Buzz posts and eliminate your Google profile? Now you can.
Google has update Buzz for the second time in several days. On Thursday Google made a few minor changes to the service regarding certain privacy settings. On Saturday, Google made some major changes to the service, including rethinking the decision to set people up with followers without their consent.
Last week, Google educated Buzz users on how to switch their following and followers lists to private. By default these are set to public and so, anyone who views your Google profile can see who's following you and who you're following. Given that who you follow and who follows you is selected by Google based on who you email the most, a lot of people were pretty mad that Google was revealing their most used contacts.
In a blog post published this past Saturday, Google refers to, "a new Buzz start-up experience." This time the company has made some bigger changes, doing away with the 'instant friends list' approach completely. Instead of setting you up with followers and people to follow, Google will present you with a list of suggested users; meaning you get to pick and choose who you follow and who you ignore.
Google has also added a Buzz tab to settings in Gmail. Before everything was all spread out: The switch to decide not to display your followers lists was buried in your Google profile settings, the "turn Buzz off" link was way down at the bottom of your Gmail window, and anything to do with private and public Buzz updates were inside the Buzz tab. Google has made things a littler easier by endeavoring to put all the Buzz related settings in one place.
Google will also no longer connect your Google Reader and your Picasa account with Buzz. Previously, anyone who signed up for Buzz had to manually disable this. If they did not, anything they shared on Reader would be posted in their Buzz stream and Google would show any updates to Picasa albums and in some cases, Twitter.
Perhaps the biggest change is the addition of a "Disable Buzz Completely" link. When exploring Buzz for the firs time, people were prompted to set up Google profiles. If they decided they didn't like this new social-media effort from Google, they could switch it off via a "switch off Buzz" link at the bottom of their Gmail page. However, what most people don't realize is that this link does not undo all of your previous Buzz activity. It merely hides the Buzz tab and stops the constant stream of Buzz updates to your inbox. Your Google profile is still live, all your Buzz posts are there and if you didn't set your followers lists to private, people can still view them. This 'out of sight out of mind' approach has been replaced by a more permanent solution that carries the warning, "This will disable Google Buzz in Gmail and delete your Google profile and Buzz posts. It will also disconnect any connected sites and unfollow you from anyone you are following.
Read the full blog post here.
- Computer Engineer Barbie: Dual Monitors, Linux
- Windows Mobile is Dead; Meet Windows Phone 7
- Samsung Wave: Super AMOLED, 720p, 1GHz CPU
- Sony Ericsson's Creations Wants People to Share
- Microsoft, Sony Compared in XBL, PSN Numbers
- Xbox Live Gamer Helps Thwart School Shooting
- Heroic BlackBerry Stops Bullet, Saves Woman
- Motorola to do Splits in 2011
- Left 4 Dead 2: 28,981,249,043 Zombies Served
- Kevin Smith Wages War Against "Fattist" Airline
- iPhone Owners Smashing Device to Get Upgrade
- Boffins Close to Creating Suspended Animation
- Air, Flash Finally Coming to Smartphones
- Mitsubishi Demonstrates 4K2K Upscaling Tech
- VIDEO: HTC's Sexy New Legend, Desire & HD Mini
- Apple Probed Due to Bogus iTunes Charges
- VIDEO: Verizon Pokes Fun at ''Twilight'' and AT&T
- HTC Goes Phone Crazy: Legend, Desire, HD Mini
- Street Fighter IV Headed to the iPhone (For Real!)
as much as i love google... i don't think they will be successful in penetrating this market... unless they buy off one of the bigger companies, or one of the bigger companies mess up royally [facebook, i'm looking at you... keep those crappy updates coming mark, you'll lose everything]
Didn't realize it did all that when signed up, Thanks!
anything with "without their consent." is a bad thing in this world. ANY-thing.
...one of the bigger companies mess up royally [facebook, i'm looking at you... keep those crappy updates coming mark, you'll lose everything]
Dude you are so right! The more updates Facebook has, the less logical and natural the layout is becoming. I adapt to change quite well when it makes sense, but it seems that key people at Facebook have either been replaced, "retrained" or have lost all interest in proving their users with a quality experience.
keep the updates/changes coming Google.... I am willing to give BUZZ a chance as long as they keep innovating, adding new features and addressing concerns promptly....
I for one like google for all these new products/services. It may seem like a lot of new stuff too soon, but compared to a nothing & never approach, I prefer innovation.
Who knows, maybe one of these(BUZZ, WAVE, ANDROID,CHROME, CHROME OS, GOOGLE DOCS, 1 GIG BROADBAND etc ) will be the next big thing that we will all love and use.
there are already enough social networks out there, I'm killing buzz right now.
One of the only times I ever wanted a buzz killer...lol
"Google has also added a Buzz tab to settings in Gmail."
No such thing in my gmail settings.
My favorite part:
"Disable Buzz Completely"
No such setting in my Gmail settings either, what gives?
As a heavy Gmail user I don't like this crap and turned it off along with chat. The article is correct, it is in fine print to turn these two items off. I still like Gmail (Not the social networking) the best and it has the best spam filter I have ever seen.
This is a good thing, but many of us are asking...WHERE IN THE HECK IS THIS SETTING TO KILL IT???
This is a good thing, but many of us are asking...WHERE IN THE HECK IS THIS SETTING TO KILL IT???
An excellent question, I spent the last 20 minutes looking all over Gmail and Buzz settings to find the kills switch to no avail. Google needs to stop being so open with peoples personal choices. Any, and I mean ANY new service like this should be purely opt-in only. I just waisted 30 minutes of possible productive or fun time trying to turn off something I didn't want in the first place. Google better get its act together or it will be losing me as a customer.
There is no tab for Buzz in Settings.
Just use the "turn off buzz" link at the bottom of your Gmail page.
I feel like it will be another Fail from Google.... Going the 'Wave' way..... Buzz is bit too complicated when we compare that with Twitter.. Buzz gives too many options result of which is a confused end user who Likes his Good Old Twitter Better.
What's complicated? You just type your thoughts and hit the post button.
Plus it's already in your Gmail, no need for a Twitter account. It's just a question of how many Twitterless-but-with-Gmail people there are out there. Probably not as many as Gmail-and-Twitter people.
Buzz is too little, too late, and the worst implementation of new a feature I have ever experienced. Turning on all the "following" features without asking me if I wanted to opt in was downright asinine. Making it extremely difficult to disable at the outset was even more ridiculous. Google really wants a piece of Facebook but I can tell you, despite the new crap interfaces being added to FB, I have no reason to switch to Buzz. Especially since they started off their new product by violating my privacy. Google Buzz = EPIC FAIL.
@ thejerk dude, if you read the article you would know that all that does is hide Buzz, it does not disable it.
Regarding all the comments about there being no "Buzz" tab in the settings, the best I can determine is that if you read the blog post, it reads "Third, we're adding a Buzz tab to Gmail Settings.", operative word being "adding" which indicates it is not yet implemented.
I have been using Gmail since it's inception and have never had a complaint...this whole Buzz fiasco has really soured me though. I have never ever had SPAM problems all the years I have been using Gmail and no sooner then this Buzz crap gets released, I am inundated with 20-25 SPAM messages every freaking day.....it's enough to make me consider ending my use of Gmail....seriously